Sears is closing more than 100 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S., including three in Iowa.
A Sears store in Waterloo and Kmarts in Red Oak and Urbandale will be closing in “early April” according to the company. Liquidation sales in the three stores will start soon. The “majority” of the affected employees in Iowa and elsewhere are part-timers according to a statement from Sears.
Full-time associates will get a severance package of some sort. Retail businesses in the U.S. economy cut 67,000 jobs in 2017. There’s traditionally been an increase in jobs in the retail sector for holiday shopping, but Thursday the U.S. Labor Department reported 20,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector during December.